


For the Love of Comics - Film Review of Superman Doomsday (Animated)

by shadowkat67



Category: Superman (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Film Review - Freeform, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23088154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowkat67/pseuds/shadowkat67
Summary: Superman:Doomsday or more commonly known as The Death of Superman is one of the few comic arcs that hit mainstream. It lead up to the gut-wrenching "Death of Superman" and crossed the front page of numerous papers when it first hit the shelves of comics stores across the country (this was before book stores started selling comics or graphic novels). So it was with a bit of nostaglic glee that I watched the history unfold on one of the features of the Doomsday DVD. It is detailed in a little documentary feature. Takes about 30 minutes to watch, maybe a bit longer - and includes interviews with the writing team, which included Louise Simonson, one of the few female comic book writers in the biz at that time, who wrote superhero comics.
Relationships: Clark Kent/Lois Lane
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	For the Love of Comics - Film Review of Superman Doomsday (Animated)

Comic books have been a guilty pleasure of mine for more than a decade. I first discovered them in the 1980s, when my brother sat for long hours with the boy across the street drawing tiny superheros. Mostly though they read _TinTin_ which I found again in France along with _Asterix_. TinTin reminded me a great deal of the old Johnny Quest cartoons, but did not appeal to me all that much for some reason. I was too young to get into the literary references and there were no women to speak of for me to identify with. Also, to be honest, obscure literary references never had that much appeal for me. I can't abide footnotes or anything that gets in the way of my enjoyment of the main story, while for others they are like frosting on the proverbial cake - the best part. I guess that's an apt analogy - some people prefer the cake, some the frosting, some eat both at the same time, some like both, but eat one and savor the other.

At any rate, it was not until college that I *really* discovered and fell in love with the comic art form. Sat for hours in one of my dorm-mates rooms with her box of old X-men, Spiderman, Superman, and Batman comic books. Later, on my own, I discovered Sandman, Alan Moore's Watchmen, Frank Miller's Dark Knight, and others of that ilk. But my first love was those superhero comics. It was a love that I hid from the world at large. Stealing off to the comic book store on Cache La Poudre, the main drag from my small college in Colorado Springs, just at the foot of mighty Pikes Peak. The comic store was towards the end of the two lane street that also housed an eatry/used book store/ and independent movie house entitled Poor Richards. Few people from the college patrolled the comic store - so I was often on my own. I had a few friends at school who adored them like I did, we kept our love to ourselves, hidden in boxes beneath beds and in closets only to be shown to people who understood and shared our passion. 

Paul Theroux famously or rather infamously wrote in one of his many travel books that comics were pedesterian past-times for the uneducated or illiterate. The man clearly never sat on the floor of his dorm room, back hurting, pouring over illustrations and dialogue bubbles. He and others like him are the reason most comic fans keep their love to themselves. A private guilty pleasure to only be shared with like minds and hearts. 

**Superman:Doomsday** or more commonly known as **The Death of Superman** is one of the few comic arcs that hit mainstream. It lead up to the gut-wrenching "Death of Superman" and crossed the front page of numerous papers when it first hit the shelves of comics stores across the country (this was before book stores started selling comics or graphic novels). Selling out and bringing comic sales to an unprecedented height. The final issue containing Superman's Death was wrapped inside a black bag with the Superman signal on the front, the cover of the book hidden from view. It had two variant covers - a black one and one with Superman's cape swinging like a flag on a bunch of rubble. The second cover was the most popular. This was back in the early 1990s or thereabouts, before I moved to NYC, when I was still living in KC making guilty trips to the comic book store. So it was with a bit of nostaglic glee that I watched the history unfold on one of the features of the Doomsday DVD. It is detailed in a little documentary feature. Takes about 30 minutes to watch, maybe a bit longer - and includes interviews with the writing team, which included Louise Simonson, one of the few female comic book writers in the biz at that time, who wrote superhero comics. She also worked for a brief period of time on X-Factor (an X-men book) back in the late 1980s. The art is realistic, with lots of lines, well defined anatomy, and every emotion explicitly expressed. It is as close to a photograph as one can get in some ways without the smooth photo image. 

I remember that arc - because it was the first time I collected or got interested in Superman comics. I collected them from the beginning of the Doomsday arc up to Superman's return and eventual marriage to Lois Lane. They'd originally wanted to marry Superman and Lois that year, but got derailed because of the tv series _Lois & Clark_ \- which did not want the comic to marry Lois and Clark until they did it or better yet, have do it at the same time. _Lois & Clark_ was in its first season at this point. As a result, the writers sat in a room with a scraped story board, exhausted, and wracking their brains for an idea, any idea to fill the pages of four different books - which included at that time: _Man of Steel. Action Comics. Adventures of Superman_ and I think _Superman_. One of the writers, suggested as he always did at this point in the proceedings - "I know, let's just kill him." And instead of telling him to go take a nap or shrugging it off, they leaped on the idea. "Why not?" It's not like it hadn't been done before. No. The real challenge would be how to make it convincing and heart-wrenching to a cynical and somewhat sap-proof contemporary readership. They'd have to find a way to convince their readers they really meant it. And at the same time, tell a new story about both the universe and characters. Not as easy as it sounds. 

The arc started with the arrival of Doomsday...who began to kill people. In the comics, Lex Luthor was not in the story, so much as in the outskirts of it. Doomsday was an external villian not brought into being by anyone Superman had previously fought. He burrowed his way up from the earth. The epic battle between Doomsday and Superman swept across all four books. As it increased in intensity, the panels grew fewer and fewer. Starting at five panels per page to just one huge fold out panel depicting his death in Lois' arms. After the death, we had "A Funeral for A Friend" which swept across the DC titles - and included a cast of thousands, all the members of the Justice League. Then a month or two passed - without any Superman stories being told. The next issue - was a Commerorative Edition. After that, a few new characters popped up. Characters who took up Superman's cape. These included The Exterminator or a Superman with Goggles and a cape, and little emotion, a black man who decked himself out in an iron suit sort of like Iron Man and fought in Superman's name, Superboy (who turned out to be Superman's clone) at the age of 15, and Cyborg - a machine, who eventually turned out to be evil and went after all the others. Cyborg appeared to be winning the battle, until up popped the real Superman, with long hair, and black sun suit. The issues that followed detailed his epic battle with Cyborg, his reunion with Lois Lane, the reveal of Clark Kent as Superman, and of course the wedding. 

The story took a few years to unfold. The marriage occuring around the time the tv show's did. And like all good stories - was told in a series of chapters, some better than others. 

Having read the original, albeit many years ago, I was eager to see what they would do in the film. I love animation. So the film - animated - was a must-see for me. It also was by one of my favorite animation directors Bruce Timm, who had directed and wrote JLA, Batman Beyond, Batman, and Superman cartoons. And...it featured the vocal talents of Adam Baldwin (Superman), James Marsters (Lex Luther), Anne Heche (Lois Lane), Swoozie Kurtz (Mrs. Kent), and Ray Wise (The Editor and Chief of the Daily Planet). 

The film surprised me. It was much better than expected. Not your average Superman cartoon. The main characters are - oddly enough Superman and Lex Luthor. Doomsday is wisely only used as a device. The real story takes place, much as they did in the books, after Superman's death. It starts with Lex Luthor - who tells the tale in flashback - he is our narrator, with Marsters husky and somewhat wry vocalization, an excellent contrast to the stalwart baratone of Adam Baldwin, which sounds clear as a bell. You can hear the years of smoking in Marsters raspy delivery, which is a bit like the purr of jaguar or panther. Lex himself moves a bit like one. Or maybe the hiss of a snake. We, like Lois Lane, are repulsed and intriqued by Luthor. All lean lines, and jagged edges. 

And the romance? Is not so much between Lois and Superman, although that is evident and a main plot point, as it is between Lex and Superman - an unrequited tale of longing. Lex desires what Superman has, desires to understand it, lusts after it, is jealous and envious of it, but at the same time resents it and wishes to do little more than to demonstrate how silly it truly is. "You can't live forever, even Gods have to die eventually," hisses Luthor. Yet when Superman does die, no one is more upset than Luthor who inadvertently may have caused it. "How dare you die! How dare you die before I had a chance to kill you myself! To complete my plan!" He's so upset, he clones his own Superman, almost too well - embedding in it the same morality and self-righteousness that Superman has, yet - leaving out an important ingredient - the one ingredient that Lex himself does not understand - compassion and conscience. That all important safety valve. That thing that keeps Superman from becoming a monster, from becoming like Lex or the God Lex himself fears. Without those two things, Lex's clone is arrogant and fascist. Lex's worst enemy and the world's as well. Power unchecked. Doomsday with a brain and a desire to help. It's the dark side of Superman. The part that even Superman himself fears.

In writing the film, Bruce Timm shows us both sides of the hero. The hero who saves the day. And the hero who attempts to save us by controlling us. If we can control the victim, we limit the victims ability to get into trouble. I know what's best for you - he says. If you did not let your cat out - I wouldn't have to waste time saving her. If I just killed the villian, we wouldn't have to worry about him escaping and killing again. Until he becomes the problem and is too blinded by his own self-righteousness to see it. The best villians don't see themselves as villians. This dark Superman refuses to fight Lex on his terms, refuses to even save him, instead attempts to kill him much as Lex intended to kill Superman - using Lex's own weapons against him. 

This leaves the real Superman, revived at last, yet weakened, to fight himself. A battle that is in some ways reminiscent of the one he lost against Doomsday. In both cases it is made clear that he is willing to sacrifice himself to defeat the obstacle. He attempts to plead with his clone, but to no avail. It is in the end, Lois who assists him in defeating the clone. And Lois who shares his spotlight if only briefly, having not only discovered the identity of the clone, but also aiding in its destruction.

But the final word is left to Lex. An interesting choice. Lex, on his hospital bed, bandaged, and aching. Who purrs in a voice over...sooner or later Gods must fall. Sooner or later, I'll find a way to defeat you. It's ironic, considering how much trouble Lex went to ensure Superman's return. One can't help but wonder what Lex would do if he didn't have a Superman to rail against, to keep him in line, and ultimately to save him from his own twisted creations. A metaphor for our own psyche I guess - the id (Lex) is kept in check by the Ego (Superman) who in turn is kept in check by the Superego (Clark Kent). Much as Jimmy Olsen is kept in check by his relationships with Clark and Lois. And Clark himself is kept in check by his relations with the world. It is our relationships with others, Timm seems to be saying, that can be our salvation or damnation depending on the situation.

The film seems to say different things than the comics did or perhaps the themes are more readily available in the truncated format? The comics talked about what the world would be like without a hero at its center. How it fills the void. How we perceive heroes. How we handle them. And how they can be corrupted by us. As well as what creates them. Vengeance as seen by the Exterminator. A Need for Redeemption - as seen by Iron Man John. Different themes from a different time period. 

The fact that both stories work, the graphic novel original and the animated film - demonstrates how you can tell a story more than one way. That is one of the benefits of comics - the story can be retold from multiple angles. There is no one way or one story. Or one universe. It is unlimited or as unlimited as our imaginations. Canon in comics is what we decide to make it. It is also one of the benefits of adaptations - as John Le Carre once stated in regards to a film version of one of his books, in this instance The Constant Gardners, "the best films adaptations are not close or replicas of my novels, but rather a new take on the work from a completely different angle, an interpretation as it were. I don't expect to see them do my novel exactly as I wrote it. They aren't me. Nor do I want that, for that is uninteresting to me. What I want to see is a new take on it." (not exact, paraphrased). Timm succeeds in doing just that with Superman:Doomsday. Providing a new and innovative take on an old tale.

Highly recommend to anyone who loves Superman comics, animation, and a good yarn.


End file.
